SG Below 1.0 After Primary Fermentation of Cider

Mike72677 · Oct 21, 2013

I'm new at wine making and just started my 1st kit a few weeks ago. I was then given 5 gallons of fresh pressed apple cider last Sunday and told "here, make wine". I have no clue on making wine from scratch yet, but got out a recipe book and followed the instructions. I had the wine in a primary fermenting bucket for a week, stirring it daily. Yeast was added a day after I got the cider because of the campden tablets. It took about 48 hours and then hard core fermentation started. It was bubbling like crazy. It slowed down and I checked the SG last night and it was about .996. It started out around 1.082. I transferred it last night from the bucket to a carboy.

My question...does everything sound like it's going OK or should it not be down to .996 already? Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

jswordy · Oct 21, 2013

All is well! Congratulations.

Now you need to keep it under airlock and let it settle out a bit, transferring to a clean carboy as lees build up, perhaps every 3-4 weeks.

Then later, you can decide whether to leave it dry or stabilize, add sugar or other amendments, and bottle. Some folks do like to put a cinnamon stick or two in the carboy for a short period.

Mike72677 · Oct 21, 2013

Thanks for the quick response! Just continue to rack every few weeks now? That's all that's left in the instructions other than adding anti-oxident before bottling.

Thanks again for the very quick response! I didn't want to end up with apple cider vinegar!

Mike72677 · Oct 22, 2013

The only steps left in my recipe are racking several times and adding anti-oxidant at bottling.

However, I have read about adding campden tablets when racking and I have read about adding ascorbic acid when the SG drops bellow .995 to prevent it from oxidizing and turning to vinegar and I've seen adding potassium sorbate prior to bottling to prevent the restart of fermentation.

Any input? Thanks!!

seth8530 · Oct 22, 2013

Campden is potassium metabisulfite which is your " anti-oxidant". Which is added periodically to keep the sulfites levels around 50 ppm or 50 mg/L (correct me if I am wrong I am winging this off the top of my head) to help prevent bacterial infection as well as oxidation. Sorbate, on the other hand is like you said added prior to bottling ( make sure wine is clear) to prevent renewed fermentation in a wine that you want to back sweeten.

Also, make sure that as you rack the wine from carboy to carboy you do not end up with head space. You can add lead free marbles to your wine to fill the void or fill it up with a similar wine.

LittleBearGameFarm · Oct 23, 2013

I have a similar question regarding the apple wine I have going.

Started last weekend with 6.5 gallons in primary which included two bags of apples (approx. 20LBS?) Accidentally got a little heavy on the sugar and the SG was 1.102. Pulled the fruit on day 4 which took the volume down to 5.5 gallons so I added a gallon of apple cider. I did not take the SG of the apple cider but I would think that would have dropped my total SG some in the primary. The SG of the must was 1.078 before I added the apple cider. Also, I used Champagne yeast.

Anyways, I racked to secondary last night and had an SG of 0.992. I did not check temp corrections on any of the readings but I keep the room at 69*F. Does that seem like a low SG? The must was still bubbling like crazy so will it keep going down or should I try to stop the fermentation?

Does anyone know what a typical SG of apple cider is? Going back I'm guessing after adding the apple cider at approx. SG of 1.005, I would have had an original SG of 1.087 = (5.5Gallons x 1.102 + 1 Gal x 1.005)/6.5
Would that sound correct?

Thanks for the help!